Despite the differences in how their bodies are designed, horses and humans share striking similarities when it comes to a number of diseases and health conditions. For instance, researchers recently renamed “heaves” to equine asthma due to its similarities to the human condition. And osteoarthritis is a debilitating condition in both species.

But one area in which horses and humans differ is their muscle inflammation and its relationship to hyperinsulinemia, researchers have learned.

In people, skeletal muscle inflammation is believed to be one factor that can lead to the development of obesity-associated insulin resistance (hyperinsulinemia, an increased level of insulin circulating in the blood). Given this relationship in humans, researchers sought to find out if such inflammation in obese horses could also be linked to hyperinsulinemia. In a recent study, the team could not identify a positive relationship between inflammation and obesity or insulin resistance in horses.

“We were surprised by this since there does appear to be such a strong link in humans,” said Heidi Banse, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, in Alberta, Canada